Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo: Tokikake

I've always been a fan of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Ever since I first saw the movie when I was 16, I've always loved it and hated the ending at the same time. I just couldn't accept the fact it ended that way. But even so, I still loved it.

A few years later, I was looking at the manga list of MAL when I saw it: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time... manga?! I was so shocked. And so I checked it out.

It was a short read. It only contained 5 chapters and each chapter has 40+ pages.

Basically, there's this girl named Makoto Konno who can leap through time (hence the title) and every time something happened that she dislike, she'll just jump back. So the plot just centers around that and the fact that there are consequences whenever she "time leaps".

I'm happy that the manga is somewhat different from the movie version that for a while I thought, "Hey. Maybe the manga will give me the very happy and satisfying ending I really want the movie to have!"

I was wrong.

I, an avid fan of the movie, barely understood what happened. I kept on clicking the right arrow button, hoping that a new page would come out instead of the "The End" that was shown on my screen but it was hopeless. When it finally sunk in, I was like "Wait, that's it?!". I have A LOT of questions regarding the ending of the manga. It's a bit better than the ending in the movie (just A BIT) but so confusing and too open-ended.

The plot is almost the same as the movie except for some scenes and the ending of this manga. I also realized that this is even more fast paced and left out a lot of details. I'm just glad I saw the movie first before reading this.

As for the art, I think it's above average compared to other manga.

So now, the question is, is it worth reading? I have two answers depending if you have already seen the movie version or not.

If you haven't seen the movie yet, I suggest that you go and watch it first. The movie explains the "time leap" and the circumstances better than the manga. But well, if you're feeling a bit daring and would like to take a risk, you can go ahead and start reading. You should make sure to still watch the movie though! It's really great!

If you have seen the movie, reading this manga is A MUST. If you're like me who's a bit disappointed on the ending of the movie, you can find a bit of satisfaction by reading this manga. Take note, however, that you should read this from the VERY beginning and not skip to the last chapter. There are some scenes that can be found here that's not in the movie and vice versa. Believe me, I tried to read the last chapter and I didn't understand what was going on. Hence why I suggest that you start from chapter 1.

Overall, despite all of my complaints, I still think that this manga is a good read and is a nice accompaniment for the movie.

Story: 7/10
Art: 7/10
Character: 7/10
Enjoyment: 7/10
Overall: 7/10

I was expecting something good but this totally let me down. I don't even really understand how it ended, the art was very good and worth looking at for sure but the characters were flat, when they were mentioned at all and the story had no grip to it. For something like this the reader should be pulled in and made wonder what they would do in that situation. I think that over all this was very unsatisfactory but I guess that's not surprising since it is adapted from a movie which is much longer. I probably wont watch the movie though because I don't like the art, so the story will leave me as the book did, unsatisfied with something that has been done countless times before and had much potential, disappointing.

Note: At the time of writing this, I have yet to see the anime movie or any of the other media (it started with a novel and there have been a number of adaptations).

Story:
At first, the story is very disjointed - and not because of the time leaps! The beginning covers a series of minor, unconnected incidents in the main character's life, which gives you a sense of the type of person she is, but can be hard to follow.

Maybe because I'm such a science fiction and fantasy fan, I didn't expect the story to go as it does - to basically be a romance/slice of life. It's sort of a coming of age story. Nonetheless, it is well-handled, and becomes increasingly gripping as it goes on and things become more difficult for the main character.

Art:
The art is nice. In the black-and-white sections, it's clean and dynamic, showing movement well, while the color pages (which are few) use a coloring style that's unusual in manga, and it turned out quite well.

Characters:
The main character starts out pretty immature, but thankfully she grows over the course of the story. The other characters, though not numerous (it is after all quite a short manga) are realistically portrayed and easy to relate to.

Overall:
This manga is fun from the start, and gets better. I wouldn't say it's a must-read, but it does make me want to check out the earlier versions as well as the movie - there are several references to the other story (this is a sequel of sorts) which I enjoyed, even though I haven't seen what they're referencing! It's also a fast and easy read, even in the original Japanese.

Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo: TokiKake.

Yes its called TokiKake for a specific reason, to differentiate it from the Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo manga released earlier.

Is there a difference? Yes. In the MC of the story. In this its Makoto, in that its her aunt Kazuto.

I'll touch on the other manga later on, but first, TokiKake.

Story: 7/10. The concept of time leaping is interesting, but the pacing of the entire manga felt rather rushed. At the end I was left with a feeling of 'Was that all?' Not the best feeling, but that has to do with the pacing. But even when it comes to raw content there isn't much to really be impressed. Maybe its because the manga was based on the movie, and hence is a more condensed version to hopefully get people to watch the movie. But the point stands that I was left teased and its extremely frustrating. Now if the manga were slightly more slower paced, with the character really coming to grasp with her powers, and more character development, then maybe it would have been better, but then it wouldn't be the same.

One thing I found weird was the aunt's open attitude towards the MC's powers, as if it was normal. Then again, she herself had experienced time leaping powers earlier. Of course I only found that out later when I picked up the original manga, and I'll go a little into the difference between the manga and the original in the last few pages of the TokiKake manga.

Also, regarding the orange-haired guy (Chiaki), what was his actual purpose there? It was never explained. There were a number of small plot holes that were also left unexplained (like the painting Kazuto is restoring as well as the machine that allows for time leaping) and it really bugs me how there isn't an answer for it, at least in the manga.

Art: 7/10. Not much to complain, the linework was normal. Nothing too special, nothing too bad.

Character: 8/10. I enjoyed the little dilemmas that the MC has, and the fact that her actions actually have repercussions that she herself is affected by. Especially the whole confession scene(s), I felt sad. I won't lie I actually teared up a bit. Quite a few times. Maybe I'm just a sucker for tragic love, but that's what happened. The MC's friends too have their own purpose. Orange-haired guy (Chiaki) was the mysterious one, and the big buff guy (Tsuda) was the helpful one, with the aunt providing advice here and there. I like how she never really gave a straightforward answer, but let Makoto learn for herself the effects of her powers.

Enjoyment: 8/10. I like how I was affected by the mood of some parts of the story, and interested in Makoto's time leaping adventures, but ultimately the plot holes left me pretty frustrated.

Overall: 8/10. The story is fine, the original is better, and so is the movie. Ultimately, I can't really find a reason to read this, unless you have some free time, or want to get a brief summary of what happens in the movie, and to hype yourself up for that.

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Extras:

I want to get this off my chest. The last few pages of the manga, after its done with Makoto's arc, switches to the aunt's arc when she was in high school too.

Now, the guy she fell for, like in Makoto's case, is a time traveler, but without prior knowledge about her arc, the mini-section makes little sense.

From here on out its gonna be spoilers, I guess. So beware if you haven't read the original.

Now, what annoys me the most is that in this version, she has a countdown just like Makoto, and she didn't wanna use it because she had the memory of the guy she loved. The thing is, he erased her memory, so in the end did she regain it back or was it lost?

Also, she never had the counter in the original. In fact, the entire encounter happened pretty differently. The guy she fell for was a time traveler who was experimenting on the possibility of transporting people, but his supervisor came back to retrieve him since he was messing with Kazuto's memories and this caused untold consequences. The reason for this was because he was wavering through different eras and had to rebuild the time travelling drug. When he met Kazuto, I think she inherited the power to travel through time, and he was trying to get her to willingly travel to the future, not the past. In order to do this, he implanted memories into her that he was actually a childhood friend, not some stranger.

However, she accepted this all and promised to wait for him to complete his experiment, and then he would return for her. Then he wiped her memories completely and she was left at the instance where the both of them met for the first time. However, she was left with the feeling that someone important (him) would return.

In short the difference is that in the original she had the power to time travel, but she just forgot about it, while in TokiKake she chose not to time leap.